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May 2012The problem with Chico the catSunday , 27th May 2012On 18th March 2012 I reported n this blog, a problem with our cat Chico. The vet told us to get rid of his burs with a comb. Recently we bought a reliable comb from the pet shop in Tamworth. I use this to get Chico's burs out of his fur. A couple of days ago I counted the burs I removed and the result was 100 burs from his fur and another 100 burs from his bed rug. I have been quite pleased to be able to get him clean before we let him into the living room. He is very keen to come into the living room in the evening because it is quite warm while the back deck is quite cold in the evening in the current weather. So I am happy to get his burs off. Last night I had checked him before he was allowed in but I didn't think I needed to comb him. After a few minutes he had left a dozen or more burs on the carpet because I had failed to get him properly clean. I will keep on trying to get his fur clean every day so that he will be able to come in. I spoke to Mark MacAlpine, his original owner, abou the cold deck and he told me that they used to let him sleep in their living room where the fire was keeping the room warm even overnight. I said that I was worried about letting Chico into the house except when we were able to supervise him so that he could not do any damage to our house. Another trip to TamworthThursday , 24th May 2012Today Jean and Sarah needed to go to Tamworth to do some special shopping so I offered to drive them both there so that I could do some shopping. I needed to buy some special stationery from a wonderful shop called Corporate Express. I got some of what I was after but one item I needed they didn't have any in stock but they told me that they would have some in stock soon. Jean made an appointment next week at the OPSM business just a few doors away so I will be able to go there again. Both Jean and Sarah did a lot of shopping in a fabric store which had nothing they needed so we went to Spotlight where they got lots of what they were after. I tried to find some good flannelette shirts for the winter but both of the Op Shops I went to didn't have any which would fit me. I wouldn't go to Rivers or another clothes store for these shirts because the cost would have been too much. We went to the most famous coffee shop in Tamworth for our lunch. That place is next door to the office of our great member of parliament in Canberra, Tony Windsor. I visited the lady in his office to ask if he was very well. She told me that he was well. We had some conversation about my appreciation of Tony because he is making efforts to get regulations controlled using science about the issues. She was pleased with my visit and said that she would tell him I had come to the office to ask after him. On the way back to Barraba I saw a dead kangaroo on the road so I stopped and moved the body off the bitumen onto the nature strip side of the road to ensure that any birds or other animals that were trying to eat the flesh would not risk becoming roadkill themselves. I also reduced the risk of other vehicles on the road which might have run over the dead animal and affected their car or truck if the body was still in the way. Second Term Project at the Barraba Primary Central SchoolMonday , 14th May 2012The second term this year started in late June. I arranged a Junior Red Cross meeting at the beginning of the term at the school to establish a roster of the volunteer children to help me do the JRC Breakfast Club activities at the canteen in the school before the assembly in the morning on most of the Wednesdays and the Fridays. The school pays for the bread and the milk we need and the Barraba Red Cross Branch JRC provides the butter, jam, vegemite, Golden Syrup, and Maple Syrup which the children want on their toast. We also provide Orange Juice which most of the children want to drink instead of milk. I was trained in this project by one of my famous colleagues in the Barraba Red Cross Branch. Sadly he has been suffering a bad brain haemorrhage and he has not been fully fit since the specialists at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle saved his life but he is recovering pretty well over time. I am so pleased when the volunteer children help me to do what we have to do to make the other children happy with what we are offering them to eat and drink for free. All the children are pretty happy with what we are doing. This project adds quite a lot of hours to my volunteer work in Barraba. All my volunteer jobs are very interesting. I know that there are lots of volunteer projects in Barraba and the community benefits quite a lot from all this. Mouse InfestationTuesday , 1st May 2012Lots of people in Barraba are saying that they are suffering from mice in their house. We saw one in our house early last week. Jean brought our cat Chico in and he caught the mouse. I bought some mouse traps from the local super market which claimed to have a mouse attracting smell on the plastic trigger. . They didn't catch any mice so I did what their advice said, put some peanut butter on the trigger. The mice took the peanut butter off the traps without being killed by the trap. one of the traps caught a mouse by its front legs. I dropped the mouse into our garbage bin to remove it from our house. Chico then caught another mouse somewhere, probably on the back deck where he resides. Because these traps didn't kill the mice I bought some new ones from the local Hardware Store. They were more usual so I put cheese on the spikes on the metal triggers. Sadly the result was the mice eating all the cheese without being caught. I thought that if I used bacon rind as bait it might stop the mice from removing the bait without setting the trap off. Sadly we only caught one mouse by its front legs! I gave this live mouse to Chico which made him happy and resulted in death of another mouse. The other traps are still set with bacon rind as the bait but none is getting eaten and no mice are being caught. Perhaps we have reduced the infestation of our house to zero mice. I will continue to try and catch mice in case more come |
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